I’m just back from a long weekend away during which time flowers were cut, loaded, transported and finally Arranged at the hotel.

The Wedding was at the Hilton in Dartford, which is a bit of a trek from west London so I was grateful for the donated florist buckets to keep everything stable in the car.

We arrived at the hotel around 8.30 pm.  The events team were brilliant; opened a spare meeting room so we could start the arrangements and allowed us to store the flowers in the cold room.

These are the flowers for the top table – red roses and freesia a gift from the florist, with karma chocolate dahlias and euphorbia from the plot.

I had two enthusiastic helpers but who have never arranged a bowl of flowers.  A quick lesson in foliage and criss crossing stems and I left them to get on with it.  I did the final ‘primping’ but they did a fantastic job.

After clearing up the room we rolled out at around midnight!

The bride, groom and other guests were all very complimentary about the flowers and all of the bowls were carried off home at the end of the evening by aunties and friends of the bride.

An unexpected bonus is that I’ve recruited a new helper who wants to learn how to grow flowers.  She is a 40 minute drive from the plot, so we’ll see how long her enthusiasm lasts.